One of the most important subjects for high schoolers is personal finance.

Do your children know how to keep a budget? Do they understand the basics of insurance? The stock market? What is the difference between a 401K and a Roth IRA? How does credit card debt block financial freedom?

These are important questions, yet the average high school graudate is clueless about how to answer them.

If our children graduate from homeschool high school without a basic knowledge of personal finance, we are not setting them up for success. We have failed them in a major area.

The Importance of Personal Finance for Teens

Why am I so passionate about this?

Long story short… I’m married to a financial wizard. We’ve lived frugally and are 100% debt-free. We own our home and our cars and have no credit card debt. Our children are not acquiring debt to go to college. We are on track to retire early.

My husband worked for a large nonprofit debt counseling agency for 18 years. He saw the toll debt took on people’s lives - not just their financial lives but their personal lives. He counseled thousands of people about creating and sticking to a budget and helped them GET OUT OF debt.

Financial literacy was (and continues to be!) simply a part of our children’s lives. They received constant instruction throughout their lives. Things we emphasized:

Cultivating/discovering what they were good at - what would their vocation be?
how to practice budgeting in their daily lives
all about insurance, deductibles, etc…
how to start their retirement accounts
the pitfalls of credit cards
thinking about financial freedom and building wealth

A knowledge of personal finance enables us to tackle life with a sense of peace and contentment. It affords FREEDOM. It also allows us to be generous! We want these things for our children.

Personal Finance for Teens - The Class

When my son was in high school, a group of parents approached my husband about teaching a financial literacy/personal finance class. After using a popular curriculum for a couple of the classes, he decided he wanted to write his own course - which he then taught to a new crop of high schoolers.

At the same time, my husband Hal was starting his own financial coaching business. He has been coaching couples and individuals on financial empowerment and owning their money. His new course for teens and coaching business led us to create a new arm of Homegrown Learners—Your Profit Pro, dedicated to financial education for homeschoolers and their families!

After we had homeschooled our children all the way through high school, we had a good idea of what kind of course would be successful, practical, and achievable for students:

Live, in-person teaching with a lot of room for discussion and questions
A shorter time frame for the class - 6 weeks of teaching (with approximately 9 hours of instruction)
A community feature where kids can discuss with each other and assignments can be made
Smaller groups of students (maximum of 10 students per class)

And, after years and years of counseling and coaching, Hal came up with six core areas of importance in Personal Finance. The new course dedicates a week to each of these principles:

How to Register for Personal Finance for Teens

Registration closes August 10 for the Fall 2024 term.

To get on a waitlist, request a class time, or organize a group for a discount, please click here.

“Thank you for investing in me with your time and knowledge. You have been a wonderful teacher of personal finance. You have set me on a path I may not have started for many years through this class. Thanks for giving me the head start in learning to steward my wealth wisely.”

— Elijah, class participant

As we watch our own young adults make their way in the world, a knowledge of personal finance is what is contributing to their success. We’d love to help your children be successful as well!

Any questions or comments?

Please leave them below!

Do you have difficulty finding books that are just good, clean reads?

I used to struggle a lot with this, but over the past few years, I’ve become “plugged in” to many ways to find interesting, educational, suspenseful, clean reads.

The books I will list here (more than ten because a few are series recommendations) are perfect for adults, but I wouldn’t hesistate to hand them to teens, either. Several of these were recommended by high school and college-age girls I know.

So… get out your TBR (I like to keep track of books I want to read on Goodreads), and I hope you discover some new books in this post!

10 Clean Book Favorites

I love reading across various genres, so hopefully, you will find something here no matter what you prefer!

Historical Fiction Clean Books

The Timeless Series by Gabrielle Meyer

I have read the first two books in this series (the third is coming out soon) and love them because they are strongly based on history and have the element of “time crossing.” Gabrielle Meyer (a homeschool mom) has done a lot of research, and we learn about the Civil War, Pear Harbor, WWI, September 11, and more.

The main character in each book lives in different eras of history and must decide by her 21st birthday which era she wants to remain in! The best thing about these books is that all of the characters are aware of God’s sovereignty and goodness in their lives and listen to Him for guidance.

I’m not one for time travel in books, but I couldn’t read these two books fast enough!

The Swan House Trilogy by Elizabeth Musser

I breezed through all three of these books last summer! They were set at the historic Swan House and were of great interest to me because they were set in and around Atlanta.

The first book, The Swan House, sets the stage by introducing our main character:

“Mary Swan Middleton has always taken for granted the advantages of her family’s wealth. But a tragedy that touches all of Atlanta sends her reeling in grief. When the family maid challenges her to reach out to the less fortunate as a way to ease her own pain, Mary Swan meets Carl—and everything changes. For although Carl is her opposite in nearly every way, he has something her privileged life could not give her. And when she seeks his help to uncover a mystery, she learns far more than she ever could have imagined.”

— book jacket

Through the series, we travel through Mary Swan’s life and witness her faith and resiliency. Her life is far from perfect, but that is what I loved about the book.

The Metropolitan Affair by Jocelyn Green

Jocelyn Green is a go-to author for me when I am seeking clean historical fiction.

The Metropolitan Affair takes place during the Roaring 1920s. It is a love story set in the museum, and we get a behind-the-scenes look at museum work and art fraud. If you like a bit of a mystery, this one is for you!

The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron

This book is TOUGH. It is based on the true story of Holocaust heroine Stefania Podgórska, a 16-year-old Catholic girl in Poland who not only took care of her younger sister but also hid 13 Jewish people in the attic of her tiny apartment.

If you or the reader you are giving this to is sensitive to violence and suffering, please be aware that parts of the book can be dark. Ultimately, there is a message of hope and love. As noted, the book is YA, so it’s great for your high school readers.

Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce

This is another first in the series… I quickly read the rest of the series when I finished Dear Mrs. Bird! (They made for great poolside reading last summer.)

This book was funny, serious, sad, historical, and full of hope and goodness.

Set in London during the early years of WWII, our narrator is Emmy, doing her best for the war effort and pursuing her dream of being a war correspondent. War is devastating, and life turns out much differently than expected, but the resilience, grit, and humanity shown by all the characters make this a gem of a book.

Literary Fiction and Romance Clean Books

The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich

Sean Dietrich (aka Sean of the South") is my favorite living writer. His books are full of humor, warmth, insight, and faith. I’ve read everything he’s written, and I think The Incredible Winston Browne is my top pick.

This is the story of a small-town sheriff, a mysterious little girl, and a community that comes together to help her. The theme of this story (and his others) is that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things.

The Printed Letter Bookshop and Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

It must tell you something that I’ve included two books by Katherine Reay in this list. Her books are a SURE THING and are among the very few books I take the time to reread!

These books are light and sweet but have a deeper meaning simultaneously. Katherine Reay weaves her faith so naturally into her books, and it brightly shines through. You really can’t go wrong with anything she has written.

I’m Not Charlotte Lucas by Kasey Stockton

I love a good romance, and I’m Not Charlotte Lucas is one of them.

“Northern California girl Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Lucas has two great loves: Diet Coke and Pride and Prejudice. But her passion for Regency classics is tempered by a very real fear: Charlie is terrified of having to endure the fate of her namesake—spinsterhood. Despite her best attempts to maintain a modern sensibility, she can’t say no when an elderly neighbor asks Charlie to attend a charity ball with her grandson. Blind date or not, Charlie is powerless to resist the allure of a real-life ball. Soon it’s clear that she will struggle to resist the charms of her blind date too.”

— book jacket

I appreciated the 100% wholesomeness of this book and the celebration of family values - so refreshing for a contemporary romance.

For More Book Recommendations:

Connect with me on Instagram and Goodreads for more book recommendations.

If you’re looking for a community of like-minded readers, check out my private Facebook group, Homegrown Book Picks. It’s my favorite place to be online!